Malta last year registered the lowest number of complaints against Brussels since the island joined the EU in 2004.
Maltese complaints about the EU's administration fell by 64 per cent to just nine in 2010, according to figures released by the office of the EU Ombudsman.
Traditionally, Malta was the member state with the highest number of per capita complaints in the EU. However, its "complaints record" has been overtaken by Luxembourg, Cyprus and Belgium.
At the other extreme, those who complained least about EU institutions last year were the Italians and the British.
No details were given about the nine complaints filed by Maltese individuals or organisations last year or who actually filed them. However, in one of these complaints, the Ombudsman found no wrongdoing in a decision taken by the European Parliament not to disclose any details of the amount of sickness certificates registered by MEPs. The Ombudsman justified such a refusal on grounds of data protection laws.
In 2010, the greatest number of complaints about the EU's administration came from German (375) and Spanish (349) citizens, companies, NGOs and associations. The Ombudsman received a total of 2,667 complaints in 2010, compared to 3,098 in 2009.
In over 70 per cent of cases, the Ombudsman was able to help the complainants by opening an inquiry, transferring a case to the competent body or giving advice on where to turn. The number of opened (335) and closed inquiries (326) remained stable in 2010 compared to the previous year. The most common subject of inquiries closed by the Ombudsman in 2010 was lack of transparency in the EU administration (33 per cent), including refusal to release documents or information. Other cases were about problems with the execution of EU contracts or calls for tender, unfairness, abuse of power and discrimination.
At the presentation of his annual report in Brussels, Nikiforos Diamandouros said the Ombudsman's main priority was to help the EU administration become more open, proactive, accountable and citizen-friendly to increase trust in the European public service.
"Quite a lot remains to be done in this respect. I am, however, delighted that, in more than half of the cases I closed in 2010, the institution concerned accepted a friendly solution, proposal or settled the matter," he said.
Most of the inquiries opened in 2010 concerned the European Commission (65 per cent), followed by the European Personnel Selection Office (10 per cent), the EP (seven per cent) and the Council (two per cent).
Taken together, the EU agencies accounted for 10 per cent of all inquiries opened in 2010.